Custom build: 3 x XR-E R2s thrower

[Manual Man]

Heres the deal guys:
I want to make something fairly powerful for spotting rabbits and such at extended ranges (120m+), I will be using a 2 x 18650 host used to power three XR-E R2s or three XP-G R5s (have yet to decide whether I want a dedicated thrower of something with a larger hot spot. My guesstimates are that I can get 700-1200 lumen with a 1 and a half hour run time depending on the LEDs used. Heres the catch...(as always :broke:) it needs to cost as little as possible (probably sub $50).

Heres the parts I have so far chosen: DX sku.15693 (body), 44305 (R5), 11022 (Q5), or an R2 p60 drop-in and removing the LED.

My questions are: what do I use to driver them? Have I chosen a good host? Should I beef up the number of emitters to 4 or 5....and if so where can I find a good 4 LED optics to fit in the host?...on second thought I haven't found a 3 LED reflector which will fit in there, any ideas? :thinking:

Cheers

 

[tx101]

Have you considered a Mag host ?
The larger Mag head will give you more options for reflectors.
Have a look at sku.35241 or 9358, both are slightly larger than the
Mag head but that can be solved by trimming the rim of the reflector.
Then you will have to mod the Mag switch (cut off the bulb tower)
and solder wires on the positive and negative contact of the switch
to the contacts on the dropin.

Another build you should consider if your after throw, is an aspheric lens
setup with a single XRE :devil:

 

[Manual Man]

Cheers for that....any idea of the cheapest way of creating a 1000 lumen light with DX parts? Can't decide on whether to make a custom light of just hold off and spend the money on something else :(.

Also..what is the max current you can drive a Q5 at if you don't mind?

Cheers

 

[HarryN]

A light with enough throw to easily see at 120 meters is not something that just falls together.

I think with that budget, I would look around for an off the shelf light, even a used one in the for sales threads. I used to think I could make things cheaper than I could buy them. I assure you that it is not true, even though I keep having hobby fun building things.

I assume you already have a quality charger for those 18650s. If not, that can hit the budget hard as well.

 

[bigchelis]

I remember my old Malkoff Tripple XR-E light. It had surprisingly good throw, but the beam was really ringy.


The Malkoff pushed those XR-E's at 1A each and made 686 real OTF lumens, but 580ish at 3minutes.


So, with DX quality you might get 500ish OTF total with 3 XR-E's. I think 1A is good for each emitter, but if you could get a bigger heatsink or a copper one then bump it up to 1.4A.


FYI: I drive my XR-E's at 2A in Mag D size lights with adequate heatsinking of course. The lumens stay stable at 220ish for minutes, but I see 240ish on turn-on. (actual testing was done with 1.4A, but now its 2A and no tint shift just more intense brightness).


bigC

 

[The Wolverine]

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16538
UniqueFire HS-802 Cree R2 2 mode high/low

1-18650 no need for 2 18650's. It will reach past 100 yards on low, well past 200 yards on high. and its $25 It is a awesome thrower.

I wanted a one mode thrower, but for $25 i figured I would try this one, I am glad I did. The high mode under 100yards is too bright and will spook game, so the low is perfect for short range.

 

[ma_sha1]

To meet the budget of $50.

Here is my suggestion:

Host WF-500: $24, It can run on 2x18650 or 2x18500.

Dx Tri or 5x Cree Module, built in drivers to run on 2xLi-ion.

They range from $20 to $32 depends on how stringent your $50
budget is & if you want the 5xcree for a few bucks more.

The 5xCree R2 module would give you 1200 lumens &
Throw about 20-25K lux @ 1 meter.

It'll be very hard to beat that budget or lumens or throw with
individual leds, drivers & reflectors pieced together.

 

[Manual Man]

O.k I think I might have to do that Ma_sha1, otherwise I was thinking of modding a HS-802 with a 1.4A driver (if possible) to give ~250 lumen (thought about a XP-G R5 in that host but decided not too).

Cheers

 

[The Wolverine]

How much throw do you need? how far are you going to shoot?

Driving it harder is going to decrease your run time.

Your OP said 120m, the HS-802 will do that on low with a decent scope.

The only bad thing I have found with the 802 is the tail switch clicks too loudly.

A forward clicky would be awesome, but then you would not have the high-low.

 

[Manual Man]

Some guys over here in NZ did some reviews of DX lights..one of them the HS- 802, both the 802s they reviewed had problems, however I wouldn't mind betting that with a little tampering you could get a fairly reliable 'super thrower' out of the deal for very little...will do a little digging and see what I find.

Cheers

 

[The Wolverine]

I use my HS- 802 on a AR-15 in .223 and have not had any trouble yet, if I do, I will just rebuild it. I have thought about putting a red LED in it, red does not spook game near as bad as white.

 

[Manual Man]

Yea I want to give red a try, however I can't find any above 200 lumen for anywhere near the price of regular a "white" emitter, having > 1000 focused (red) lumen mounted on a .223 would make a awesome night time bunny busting setup :D....any idea of how much red light you would get out of a HS-802 with a red filter?

 

[The Wolverine]

I have not tried a filter on the 802. I have a Ultrafire C2 with this http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.25518 driven by http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1776 using a 18650. It will reach out to 100 yards with a good scope for hogs, probably not that far for little bunny foo foo.

The c2 has a shallow OP reflector, putting sku.1776 in the HS-802 it should reach much farther, the 802 has a smooth reflector that is deeper, and bigger than the c2.

 

[wyager]

I was considering doing the same thing... I have two extra XR-Es lying around, if I can get a third maybe I'll do something with those plastic aspherics I have lying around.

 

[Manual Man]

What about this? A triple XR-E R2, with one of the XR-E R2s being Red? (they do come in red don't they?) This would give me the option of stealth close range (~50 meters) and good throw out to ~150m

Anyone have any idea of the cheapest place to buy Red XR-E R2s or regular "white" R2s?